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Archdemon (Dragon Age: Origins)
Early Phase The Archdemon periodically flies to another spot on the fortress. It is easily attacked but will use various knockbacks, wing buffets, grabs and other attacks, making it difficult for melee fighters to engage it. For this reason you may want to try having your warriors use ranged attacks whether they have any Archery talents or not. You will be joined (PC only) by Arl Eamon, First Enchanter Irving or Knight-Commander Greagoir (depending on Broken Circle's resolution), Zathrian or Swiftrunner (depending onNature of the Beast's resolution), and/or Kardol (if he was persuaded to join the battle). They are valuable allies; spare healing spells for them if you can.If your party is having trouble, call an army (the golems are particularly helpful here) to distract the Archdemon while retreating to the ballistae on the towers. These siege weapons auto-target the Archdemon and, if it is within range, fire bolts that do between 40 and 120 damage. When hit with a ballista bolt, the Archdemon will roar in pain, interrupting its attacks and giving the ballista enough time to reload. Though significantly less exciting, this is an efficient way to chip its health away without actually fighting it. On any difficulty though, the ballistae will eventually jam and require a Rogue to fix them; the Archdemon may jump onto a tower; and a ballista may even jam indefinitely. One effective strategy with the ballistae is to take control of a Rogue, while sending the rest of your team after the Archdemon itself. If you effectively prevent the Archdemon from attacking, and inflict enough damage before jamming, you can quickly advance to the second and third phases of the battle. Note: having an army to back up your attackers works well - preferably elves to draw larger attacks (like the vortex) away from the party, or golems (which will endure the longest). Middle Phase In this phase, the Archdemon will jump to an isolated platform; melee fighters will not be able to reach it due to a fissure in the roof. At this point, darkspawn reinforcements will pour onto the roof to assist the Archdemon (as before, the Alphas, Emissaries, and Shrieks have normal health, while the Grunts are still generally one-hit kills. Any Hurlock Generals you didn't kill on your way through Denerim will also join the battle).The Archdemon will simply launch Spirit-based attacks at its enemies during this phase, so throw Area of Effect spells and/or fire ballistae at it. If you choose to 'camp' near the ballistae, be sure to have a strong army to keep all enemy units busy. If you have a ranged army (i.e. Dalish or Mages) active on the field, make sure to engage darkspawn with party members and/or use immobilizing spells; similarly, a melee-based army (Dwarves, Redcliffe soldiers, Golems, Werewolves, or Templars) can engage the darkspawn while the party uses tactics that could be disrupted by them. To avoid being overwhelmed by darkspawn, use area-of-effect abilities - almost all of the battle will take place in a small pocket, directly in front of the Archdemon, as it is a common spawning place for both sides. You may also want to crowd your offensive forces on a 'spawn door' to stop Alphas from getting too far into the fray. Shrieks usually run out too fast and Grunts aren't always worth attacking, but Alphas usually activate a buff once they arrive (use that time to draw their aggression with your choice of character/ally). Alternatively, if you wish to take on the Archdemon by yourself using bow/staff/ballistae, and two members of the party can engage at melee range, send them to the spawning points to keep the late arrivals busy. At this point it may prove difficult keeping your allies alive. Arl Eamon (indeed, any allied melee NPC listed above) usually insists on moving close to the spawning points, potentially creating a 'double front' to attend to. Do not necessarily worry about losing major NPCs, however. Like party members in any fight, they will not die permanently as long as a party member remains 'up'. Never forget that your main focus is the Archdemon. Note: In order to draw the Archdemon to melee range, the current wave of darkspawn must be defeated.Late phase This begins when the Archdemon is at around 15-20% health, but can actually be avoided if it is damaged quickly enough (not so much to do with its exact health, but rather how fast you can deal damage). Spell Combinations in particular will be highly useful for this purpose. The Archdemon flies to the upper part of the main platform, while darkspawn spill from the doors at an increased rate.The Archdemon will continue to attack anything within range while many of the darkspawn switch to ranged weapons. There are two ballistae in range of the Archdemon: one from the middle phase and one 'across the Archdemon' from that one. Use them until they jam, as they can do up to 115 damage per shot. A melee army (i.e. Dwarves, Templars, Soldiers, Golems, or Werewolves) can distract darkspawn or a ranged army (i.e. Elves or Mages) can increase ranged damage against the Archdemon. Keep an eye on the party in case their tactics allow target switching - tanks should concentrate all their efforts on the Archdemon. Rogues should engage darkspawn to keep them off the tanks (when not needed to fix a ballista). The final stage is the hardest to keep track of since you may be firing and repairing ballistae, healing, and making sure your tanks don't stray (turn off all attacks that do not affect the Archdemon and set all effective enemy-targeted tactics to 'Boss'). As a final aesthetic note, the Archdemon has a unique deathblow animation should the killing blow come from a melee weapon. Tips on how to save armies for the final battle: . If you don't really have to, don't rush into the battle headfirst, but rather lure out small groups or singles.. With at least one party member with Survival skill upped, you should be able to determine type of enemy, level and such info; use this to your advantage by killing the grunts with ranged member, or mage, thus eliminating the weak.. Kill grunts first, then pull the stronger darkspawn one by one; this can be time-consuming but efficient.. Petrify can be a deadly combo with Critical Strike, Slam, Killing Blow and the like (see Shattering).It is very handy if you manage to save all allied armies for this fight; close-quarters warriors like men or dwarves can keep it busy for quite some time. Probably most useful abilities of Shale in this battle are those from Stoneheart and Rock Mastery tiers. Pulverizing Blows are good, but unless you want to get your golem killed quickly, the other two are better. Stoneheart grants additional sturdiness and regeneration, while Rock Mastery allows Shale to make some damage from distance. See: Dragon Age: Origins